I’m a blogger who posts about fiction writing and sells a few writing ebooks while I’m at it. The majority of readers here are online entrepreneurs who’d rather hear about blog-related marketing than how to write the next Salzburg Times bestseller.

Many of whom, by the way, have a story in them.

6. Darren Rowse really is the nicest guy on the internet. A total pro, too. I’ve tested this theory with a wide breadth of technical cluelessless and naiveté, and you can add patience to those first two.

He doesn’t just let anybody onto this site, which means you not only earn your admission ticket (lest you wonder, I was invited to post here twice a month), you earn your keep, too. And it’s all fair.

5. The company you keep defines you. Choose wisely.

In this case, being on Problogger has upped my online exposure and, merely by association, my chops in the online world. My brand. Which means, the pressure is on.

This, too, is natural law in the online world.

Because the same crowd that throws in on that count can slap you back to reality with one missed swing. (That being three metaphors in one sentence… don’t try this at home.)

4. It’s okay to get personal. And I’m not talking about dating or social media sites (getting too personal on those venues can also get you arrested).

A blog is usually an ancillary tool in an otherwise pointed branding and marketing strategy, which means it doesn’t need to exclusively spew bits and bytes (digi-speak for features and benefits) or self-serving bluster that doesn’t smack of commonality.

People are attracted to commiseration, empathy and the voyeuristic joy that comes from reading about the sheer misery of others in like-minded situations.

3. There’s one in every crowd. Try not to be that guy.

You could blog about the reliability of death, taxes and gravity and somebody will post a comment endeavoring to make you wrong (one self-proclaimed “blogging superstar” tried to refute my theories about writing and publishing contemporary fiction by quoting Cervantes, who published his last book in the year 1615 … but that’s another site).

That which doesn’t kill us either makes us stronger or simply pisses us off.

2. You, the blogger and the commenter, put the UNITY into community. That’s why this venue is unique in all of the history of human communications.

And the most valuable thing I’ve learned here on Problogger is…

1. I have a lot to learn. That’s why we’re all here, isn’t it?

One of the best ways to learn – albeit with a resource like Problogger on your daily to-do list – is to just keep writing. On your own site, and on others if they’ll have you.

And if that’s not common ground, perhaps we’re all in the wrong place.

Larry Brooks is the creator of Storyfix.com, an instructional site for fiction writers and those who proof them.

You’re right Larry.
Just keep on writing. I post to my blog five days a week (www.BudBilanich.com).
I’ve become a better writer as a result. More important, I’ve gained a deeper insight into my topic– life and career success — by writing about it every day.
I even published a book based on the ideas I developed in my blog, “Success Tweets.”
Readers can get a free copy at http://www.SuccessTweets.com.
All the best,
Bud Bilanich

There is one more item that I would like to add, we’ll make it number 11:

People love to read numbered lists. I have learned that no matter what kind of post you are creating, if you can turn it into a numbered list or a numbered product, people will flock to it like moths to a candle.

I know I need to do this more myself.

No matter who you are and what position you are trying to make, for some reason there is a general solidarity that people just can’t resist that numbered list.

Keep writing and going no where isn’t quit nice and that’s what almost every blogger out there are doing, including me, so is better to write something that really can have something in return is still the best call, reading in problogger blog sometime I learn new ideals but most of the time, is plain old reminded of what we had forgotten in blogging which is quite important even if we had to re-read stuff that we already knew.

Regarding point 3, I think it is important that commenters aren’t afraid to question a post. Sometimes the responses on this blog seem horrendously sycophantic and I just don’t think that’s good for anyone.

Remember there is always a chance everyone else is wrong and “that guy” is actually right. As Voltaire pointed out (1778, who’s keeping score?) common sense isn’t always that common.

I think that point 1 is certainly the most important. All of the great blogging entrepreneurs will tell you that they have had to adapt at one point or another to stay afloat, and adapting is being willing to learn and change your way of doing things in order survive and/or thrive. This deserves to be point 1.

Larry, Darren,
I completely agree that the company you keep in touch with defines you. So I am delighted to be part of the problogger community of learners. I find Darren’s work to be of top notch quality.

I’ve been blogging for about 10/11 days now, I feel like I have learnt so much, I started out blogging on my hobby site (http://ingathome.com), and also my personal site http://stuartmcminigal.com which I open up and talk.
I was never the type to update my facebook status or twitter every hour, but I feel having a blog lets you open up a lot more and explore new things.
Great list and I can relate to a few of them already!

Number 10 is a no brainier for sure. This is a world itself, in here. So much action. I wish I had 10 percent of the community and I’d be a bit more satisfied. But I know I’ll get there soon. Been blogging for six months so I can’t complain for what I’ve accomplished.

I must say problogger.net has taught me everything I know and I could probably come out with another 10 reason of what I’ve learned just from reading posts here, and the people I’ve had the chance to network with are just awesome.

Anyhow that’s some powerful stuff that you’ve learned here. Darren truly is a nice guy. Don’t know him personally but hope I do at some conf. eventually

great article. I have had a lot to learn also and there’s still some way to go. I think its important to learn from others who have been where your going. Theres simply not enough time to learn everything through trial and error.

Problogger is a great place to learn. I dont know Darren personally but reading his posts kind of gives a good insight as to what’s going on his mind. Writing skills help which is something I am working on personally.

#1 certainly is a very salient point. I’ve been reading ProBlogger since I started out on WordPress.com back in 2007. My blogging activity has waxed and waned since that point in time.

I’ve yet to achieve a modicum of success from all of the time that I’ve spent blogging, but I continue to enjoy the process. In terms of having a lot to learn, it really depends a great deal on choice.

Personally, I’ve made time-wasting decisions like learning how to edit CSS/PHP and code a child theme or just how to play around with Photoshop. None of this sort of blogging related learning will translate into actually making money, but it is fun.

Speaking of guest posting at Problogger, I’ve just upgraded two of my sites to Dreamhost VPS and I still have 6 days left on the free trial (includes 2 GB of ram). I guess that doesn’t leave much time to submit a guest post to Darren and test out how robust my hosting plan is running. :)

About “that guy” – I think it helps to remember there is rarely only one way to do something. I may be taking a slow boat China, you may be taking a flight that connects in Manila. Neither one of us is inherently wrong. Each route may be perfectly right for our specific purposes.

I’d like to second the comment by Jezza101. It would be good to see more comments which question the content of a post of suggest another viewpoint in a respectful way. I think of it as “polite discourse.”

There does seem to be almost too much uncritical praise lavished on blog posts. What if we each read a blog or two today and comment that “I see this a little differently… ” or “I agree but I wonder if you’ve considered….” It would be like having coffee at Starbucks with a friend–a discussion of ideaas, not an attack on a person.

Excellent points! I am also more writer than marketer, which means I need to increase my awarenes and skills of marketing. Does that make sense? Of course it does. In blogging, as in many fields, part of being smart is knowing the areas in which you’re dumb.

Keep writing, I like that. There’s so much to learn here in the blogosphere and it changes all the time too. The main problem with writing for me is that I can’t judge which posts will be a hit with the readers. Many times when I hit publish thinking that’s my best post ever I’m disappointed with the results, then I dash something off fast because I need to get it out there fast and am trying to stop being such a perfectionist and people rave about it!

I think that’s why some blogs have list of “recommended” posts as well as “popular” posts!

Thankfully I’ve got over the anal checking and rechecking for typos etc. They slip in even when I’ve pored over a post for hours or not if I’m lucky:)

Here’s one thing that I would love to know… Someone told me that Nginx was much faster than Apache as a web server. To see if this might be a legit option for a WordPress options, my first thought was to check Problogger and see if he used it.

To my surprise, Problogger does use Nginx instead of Apache. I’m going to try to switch, but I don’t understand how to fix the permalink issues or how to configure things without .htacess files.

If you like Larry’s post here, check his storyfix.com and subscribe. He runs a great page that threatens real results.

On the other hand, Darren is getting it done. Do we read problogger because we want to be a pro blogger anymore than we read Larry’s storyfix because we need to fix a story? The short answer to both is yes.

Darren addresses blog problems; Larry gets to it on structure. At least that’s what I look for. If you still have blog problems and writing structure problems a week after diving into these sites, the problems are elsewhere.

My problems on deegeesbb.wordpress.com come from all areas. For some that would mean start over, or quit. For me it means I have wide open choices on where to begin fixing things. If only important issues would stop coming up, for example:

In my home state of Oregon, also Larry’s, PE in school is on the chopping block. This makes me wonder what smart guys like Stephen Hawking and top IQ man Christopher Langan would say. They might say read problogger.com.

Glen:
I tell stories about my personal life — but only when they relate to and reinforce the point I’m making in my blog. I’m willing to be open about my life, but i try to not bore people by writing about me. It’s about them — and their career and life success. If my personal stories of failure and triumph can help, I use them. If not, I don’t.
Bud Bilanichhttp://www.BudBilanich.com